My orders are to kill the Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day and deliver the Lektor. How I do it is my business. It’ll be slow and painful.

From Russia With Love is my favorite Bond movie. I love a lot of ‘em, especially in the Connery era, but there’s something special about From Russia With Love. Sure, I’m mildly obsessed with Robert Shaw, but his Donald Grant is a flat-out badass. I mean, he opens the movie killing Sean Connery! How much more badass can you get? (Yes, I know it wasn’t REALLY Connery, but still).

One of these days I’ll run a nice BTS pic from this film that features a memorable scene (the knock-down, drag-out train fight, perhaps?), but today I have a nice little bit of Bondian coolness for you: Creator meeting creation!

Ian Fleming visits with Sean Connery on the set of From Russia With Love. It’s not an earth-shattering image, but a very, very cool one for Bond fans. Enjoy!

Thanks to Frank Mugavero for sending this one along! Click to embiggen!

If you have a behind the scenes shot you’d like to submit to this column, you can email me at quint@aintitcool.com.

Tomorrow’s behind the scenes pic features another famous writer on another famous set (with a famous director to boot).

Spielberg directing Moore on the set of FYEO (1981)
makup artist applying fake tears on Connerys face in final scene of OHMSS (1969)
Nicolas Meyer directing Stewart, Shatner and Nimoy on the battle scarred bridge set of the Enterprise A in Star Trek Generations (1994)
R Scott directing Arnie in Colonial Marine garb as producer/screenwriter J Cameron looks on from the set of Alien 5 (2004)
Bryan Singer adjusting Christopher Reeves' spit curl on the FOS set of Superman Returns (2006)
Verhovan and make up FX guys laughing at Arnolds head sticking out the horses ass from set of Crusade (1995)
Mel Gibson lighting up and knocking them back next to a petrol tanker on the Australian highway from Fury Road (2004)
Cameron doing the two handed framing thing on the post Judgement Day wasteland set as Michael Biehn watches HK being crane lifted - Terminator 3 (1996)
Tarentino doing a cool overhead shot of Bond (Brosnan) taking on Le Chiffe (Sam Jackson) at the card table
Spielberg setting up the highly anticipated first meeting between Obi Wan (Brangah) and Anakin (Neeson) on the set of Star Wars Episode I (1994) as Lucas stands in the background chatting to Charlton Heston (Qui Gon)

Because not only is it great as a Bond flick (the whole wish-fulfilment thing), but it is possibly the only Bond film which stands up as a spy thriller in its own right.
And yes, Red Grant is epic.
Red wine with fish, anyone?

Classist? Yes. Elitist? Yes. Now...Flemming? I'd say "yeah" but not in a KKK sort of way. More like a matter-of-fact "well, you know the Lesser Breeds don't quite have it..." sort of way. Reading "Live and Let Die" today is an embarrassment, and notice that his two non-white villians, Dr. No and Mr. Big (Live and Let Die...I think that was his name) were both half-white, as if he couldn't make himself believe Asians or Blacks could be smart enough without white blood. In the movies, they've been pretty careful for a long time, and I love 'em. But I do still cringe every time Connery tells Quarrel to "fetch my shoes" in "Dr. No" and Quarrel's eye-rolling Negroid display in the swamps. Sigh. But that was an artifact of the times, and frankly, they've been pretty cool racially since that time.

I like Moore's Bond. He's the Bond I was first introduced to, and grew up with, so that has a lot to do with it. Now, I know Connery is better. And Moore was a bit too much of a dandy to embody Bond, but I love his movies, and he's my Bond.
My all time favorite movie? The Spy Who Loved Me. Again, I know there are better Bond movies on every technical level, but that was the perfect Bond movie to me. One of the few that got the perfect balance of over-the-top fun, and actual tension.
From Russia With Love is a classic thriller in every way, and may well be argued to be Bond's best (minus some painfully bad back-projection work that was awful at the time, and hasn't aged any better). But I loved the fun of Moore's days. Your first Bond is the best Bond, in my humble opinion.

Then they got progressively worse, until the last one fell off a cliff. A View to a Kill was wretched, and would have been even without him.
I tend to judge each one of the series more as overall films, rather than zeroing in too much on who is playing Bond.
There are ones I like and dislike for every actor who has played the part.

Well, first, sticking with the main point of this here article, that *is* a mighty cool pic. <br />
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I also grew up with Moore, and for most of my life, thought of him as Bond. But now Daniel Craig has come along and revamped my vision of Bond. I like Craig's more bull in a china shop, chainsaw-not-a-scalpel approach. I do hope they get their act together and deliver another Bond film with Craig, but that they do a better job than they did with Quantum.

It's cool he was there to witness the success of Dr. No and FRWL as films (and both are fairly faithful to the original books, the latter more than the former), but I wonder what it would have like if he had witnessed the full brunt of mid-60's Bond Mania that came after the release of Goldfinger (wah-WAH-wah!) and Thunderball, and the many more 007 books he might have written into the 70's or even 80's.

Without doubt, the best piece of casting of the 1960's. If I remember correctly, Fleming wasn't best pleased when they decided to cast the ex-milkman from Edinburgh as his suave upper-class superspy, and it was Terence Young's job to 'Pygmalionise' the rough 'n' ready Scot. And guess what? It worked. Perfectly! Connery saw Bond as a sensualist who lived his life to the full, but tempered that with a devotion to his duty that underpinned everything he did on screen as the character.
I saw FRWL at a second run cinema in Northern England at the age of five, before I ever saw 'Dr No' and I was hooked on the premise of a cool British dude. And believe me, until Connery , there were no cool British dudes.
I also have a huge respect for OHMSS, and thought Lazenby a very good replacement for Connery. However, if 'Big Tam' had been in it, I suspect he may not have waited until the mid-eighties to pick up his Academy Award.

I remember when I was in 4th grade, my best friend's dad started showing him Bond movies and he wouldn't shut up about how great they were. He finally got me over to his house one Friday night to spend the night (we were 9 at the time) and his dad had rented Thunderball.
Good lord, that was it for me. We spent the next two years of elementary school watching every Bond movie we could get our hands on.
I have a soft spot for Moore because the first Bond movie I ever owned was a DVD of The Man with the Golden Gun (I still dig it, mostly out of nostalgia/Christopher Lee/A fucking midget sidekick) but I gotta give my favorite Bond flick cards to Goldfinger, Live and Let Die and Casino Royale.
And if this puts in perspective how shitty Timothy Dalton/George Lazenby were, we could tell they sucked when we were 10 and didn't know jack shit about acting or movies.

His tenure in the role might very well have sold tickets, but the pastel safari suits and tepid love scenes were poles apart from Sean's interpretation. I just couldn't buy that 'raise left eyebrow, raise right eyebrow' school of drama. Roger Moore was a straight-from-TV hack.

Like many, Moore was the Bond of my childhood. I loved him then but found his Bond campy later as I was able to enjoy Connery. But recently I've watched the Spy Who LovedMe, Live and Let Die and Moonranker again and I really enjoyed them. You have to go in with your eyes open. This is a different take on Bond - not a spoof of Connery's Bond, but certainly more tongue in cheek with a wink and a nod. In my opinion you can enjoy both on their own merits.
Tomorrow pic: Kubrick and King on the set of the Shining?

Goldfinger is Connery's best, simply because it gave the world- and cinema- something entirely new. There's a reason it instantly became the film every subsequent Bond entry- and rival series- tried to duplicate. From Russia With Love may be a great film, but it also tries a little too hard to imitate Hitchcock.
In that respect, Goldfinger is much closer to Fleming's original intent. He wasn't trying to create realistic spy thrillers or great literature- no matter how much fans may want to revise history. Fleming's goal was escapism, pure and simple, and his books were nothing like what other espionage writers were doing at the time.
If the James Bond of the 1950s had been the kind of uber-serious, realistic hero people try to portray him as today, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Take away the over-the-top villains, colorful women with punny names, and escapist fantasy- in other words, all the elements that captured the public's imagination- and you'd have a dull hero lost amid all the similar characters time has already forgotten.

OHMSS is one the best, and Lazenby was quite the martial artist.
But then again, Sean Connery did whip pretty-boy gangster Cocksure Johnny Stompenato's ass when challenged, and in this case real life is even better than the scores of movie fights he's been in.
But then again, Diamonds are Forever had probably the best rack in all the Bond films with Lana Wood. Huh huh huh...I said WOOD.
Oh my frag....I just Google Imaged Lana Wood and I completely forgot what the hell I was doing....

Ever see the martial arts films he did? He used to teach combatives to the Australian armed forces. Believe he's a black belt in jiu jitsu or something. "The Dragon Flies" and "Shatter" (I think) were two of the movies. He wasn't bad at all. A little stiff, but perfectly bad-ass. Hell, he was supposed to do a movie with Bruce Lee before Lee died. Talk about bad timing!

It includes an awesome fist fight, no undersea super-villain lairs, minimal gadgets, and real honest-to-goodness Russians!
It's the most "serious" of the Connery Bond flicks. I love "serious" Bond movies.

and probably it's a little better. Goldfinger is more fun to watch, but Goldfinger was pointing the way the series would head (gadgets, really bad puns). From Russia With Love is a great spy thriller with a thoroughly nasty, as opposed to cartoonish, villain

Lazenby should have stuck with the role, once Connery decided he'd had enough. OHMSS was fantastic, and Lazenby was good in it. His agent actually talked him out of the role after he was offered a multi-film contract. Craig is the Best Bond since Connery.

The train fight sequence is masterfully choreographed. It looks like two trained military men beating the crap out of each other in a tight space, with no crazy martial arts nonsense or shaky-cam/extreme close-ups/etc. Beautifully, simply done.
And Bianchi is super-hot.

My understanding is that when Connery was cast as Bond he was pretty rough around the edges. Nothing like the suave, sophisticated 007. But Terence Young (director of DR NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE) was and he not only directed Connery but literally taught him how to be Bond.

...and Living Daylights was a GREAT movie. Great story, great effects (the whole cargo plane action sequence fucking ROCKED!), Olivia D'Abo (sp?) was cute as all hell, great score, and Dalton was dark, the way a professional killer should be.
Unfortunately, "License To Kill" was an abomination...

I guess I'm an ant crawling down the driveway. I actually liked License to Kill. Is it the best Bond film? Fuck no. But I would much rather watch "License" than "Tomorrow Never Dies" or "Never Say Never Again" *shutter*

It had its moments. In a way, it was almost a dry run for Quantum of Solace (whether that's good or bad depends on your opinion of that flick). It was tough and gritty, Robert Davi was an excellent villain, and the truck chase at the end was full of some pretty spectacular stunt work.
On the other hand, it looked cheap and like an episode of Miami Vice at times. Clearly they were trying to compete with the R-rated action of the time, like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Also, while Dalton excelled at the moody and serious aspects of the character he was not much good with humor or swagger.
But overall, I, too, prefer it to some of the Brosnan entries. And the less said about Never Say Never Again, the better. How come Connery looks younger in that one than DAF, which was 12 years earlier? Weird...

I'm glad somebody said that. The rumor is that they were having budget problems, and that sense of 'cheapness' is all over it. Ugh! That...and the women were the sexual aggressors, rather than Bond tearing through them like tissue paper in his rage for vengeance. Oh, and Timothy Dalton's fight choreography, which was terrible. But I actually liked Dalton, and think he really tried.

Dalton is my least favorite Bond and LTK is my least favorite Bond movie, but I still sat down and watched it when it was on TV several months ago. So, I agree, Bond movies are like pizza and sex. The Living Daylights was pretty damn good though.

OHMSS is my favorite, but I'd go FRWL and Goldfinger as 2 & 3 (and Craig's CR as 4th). OHMSS and FRWL were the two that were closest to the books they were based on, which explains why they were so well done. Lazenby was at a showing of OHMSS at the Aero in Santa Monica last September and his first words when introduced after the movie were "too bad that guy couldn't act." (He told an hour's worth of great stories and it was taped, but I've never seen the interview released anywhere.)

And thats for someone to remake the Bonds.
Let me finish....
I dont mean the movies as such but the books.
Let someone have a crack at making the books into films (or decent TV dramatisations) as they are actually plotted and written.
Would be interesting to see them as the books envisaged.
Take The Spy Who loved Me, Bond doesnt actually appear till about half way through the book. Would be really interesting I think.